Thursday, August 24, 2006

State Fair: Day One

As much as the State Fair can be an annoying drag, it is also great fun. Just watching people become engaged in the political process is refreshing; candidates bring out the best kind of visitors. I didn't once hear that the US dollar is a meaningless piece of paper or that we are not required to pay taxes, or any of the other things that insane people like to ramble on and on about (*note to insane people: the Republican booth is right next to WCCO Radio; if you're lucky, you can engage Alan Fine).

While cars were being destroyed left and right from Anoka to Edina, the weather at the fairgrounds stayed calm most of the afternoon, with occasional 5-minute downpours which did us more good than harm as it drew people in. Come 6 o'clock, though, the story changed as it got as dark as night and a 45-minute downpour began. With the lightning, wind and fear of tornadoes, I'm happy to say I made it home alive and the booth suffered no damage. That’s not the sort of thing I want on Day 1 of the Fair; Day 8 it makes for a good change of pace, but Day 1 - no way.

Eventually, the fairgoers left their cover and started to wander by again, but by that time it was mostly concert-goers which makes politicking extremely hard - for a typical politician, anyway. Luckily, the Independence Party has John Binkowski and Robert Fitzgerald. Robert had tickets for the concert so he was easily able to start up a conversation with these folks and get them to hear his political platform out, and that usually included a lot of nods of agreement.

The bad weather today will mean huge crowds on Friday so it should be another exciting day at the Fair.